The Democratic victory comes at a difficult time for relations between South Africa and the United States, which have deteriorated since Trump returned to office in January 2025. His administration has cut financial assistance to Pretoria, expelled South Africa\u2019s former ambassador to Washington and moved to withdraw the country\u2019s preferential access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).\n<\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly criticised South Africa over claims that its government discriminates against white citizens and permits the persecution of white farmers. Pretoria has rejected the allegations, describing them as a false narrative promoted by fringe groups.\n<\/p>\n
The latest trade dispute centres on South Africa\u2019s removal from AGOA, a US programme that allows eligible African countries to export thousands of products to the American market duty-free. The suspension, announced by Washington this week, is due to take effect in January 2027.\n<\/p>\n
Read also:\u00a0South Africa sees limited economic impact from AGOA loss, but jobs face risk<\/a>\n<\/p>\n Ramaphosa acknowledged the economic implications of the decision, describing it as a setback for South Africa\u2019s trade relationship with the US. However, he said the development would not end commercial ties between the two countries.<\/p>\n \u201cWhilst we are sad that we\u2019ve been removed from AGOA, our trade relations with the United States continue,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n He added that Pretoria\u2019s priority should now be to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with Washington, while continuing efforts to find alternative markets for South African exports.\n<\/p>\n \u201cDiversification has now become the order of the day,\u201d Ramaphosa said.\n<\/p>\n The president\u2019s remarks reflect Pretoria\u2019s attempt to manage the diplomatic fallout while preserving access to one of its important export markets. South Africa has been seeking to broaden its trade relationships as uncertainty over US policy increases pressure on exporters.\n<\/p>\n Democratic control of Congress could create greater scrutiny of the Trump administration\u2019s foreign and trade policies. It does not, however, automatically reverse decisions taken by the president or guarantee a change in Washington\u2019s approach to South Africa.<\/p>\n The election results nevertheless give Democrats greater influence over legislation, government oversight and congressional investigations, potentially creating a different political environment for the administration\u2019s dealings with Pretoria.\n<\/p>\n Ramaphosa said South Africa remained willing to improve relations with Washington, while emphasising that the country would continue to defend its own interests.\n<\/p>\n Faith Omoboye is a foreign affairs correspondent with background in History and International relations. Her work focuses on African politics, diplomacy, and global governance.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Source: <\/p>\n Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa\u2019s President, has expressed hope that the Democratic Party\u2019s takeover of both chambers of the United States Congress will open a new chapter in relations between Washington… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Related News<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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